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This is the Parable of the Talents. We are in Chapter 25 of the book of Matthew, Verses 13 to 30. Glory to God.
Verse 13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day or the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 14, For the Kingdom of Heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them, his goods.15, And unto one, he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightaway took his journey. 16, Then he that received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.17, And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. 18, But he that received one went and dug in the earth, and hid his Lord's money. 19, After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 20, And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord thou deliverest unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. 21, His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. 22, He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. 23, His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the Lord. 24, Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: 25, And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. 26, His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: 27, Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. 28, Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. 29, For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30, And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Glory to God.
The verses immediately preceding Verse 13, of Chapter 25, describe the parable of the Ten Virgins. The message of that parable is to get oil in your lamp, get the power of God, get the Holy Spirit, and everything else that He provides for you, because, Verse 13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day or the hour, wherein the Son of Man cometh." The reason that ye know neither the day or the hour when the Son of Man cometh, brethren, is that He cometh at a different day and hour for every man. There is not going to be one appearing in the sky where the whole world sees the Lord at once.
He has been appearing for two thousand years ever since He ascended into the heavenlies and poured Himself out over the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost. He has been coming to men and appearing to men. The word "cometh" means, "to appear." When the Lord appears to you, it is the hour for judgment. When His righteousness confronts the unrighteousness of our souls, the wickedness of our soul is revealed, and the judgment of His righteousness falls upon us. Glory to God.
That judgment can manifest in two ways. It can come from a man to you. You can hear it in a service. God can bring it to you in a service. You can hear a preacher preaching, and he can make that Word real for you. He can send someone to you in a personal relationship and start exposing the sin in your heart. God will do this when you are not aware of that sin yourself. If you are capable of discerning yourself, He will bring forth this call to repent from within your own heart.
If He sends someone to you to call you to repentance, to call you to be aware of the sin that is in your own mind, your heart is your mind, and you receive the Word in due season, Christ shall be conceived in you, and that judgment shall be internalized. If you judge yourself, God does not need to send anyone to judge you. That is the Scripture, "Judge yourself, lest not someone else judge you."
It is always embarrassing when God sends someone else to point out your sins. It is hard. If you cannot look upon your own heart, it is the mercy of God, and, if you cannot receive it, you have a problem, most likely, with pride. If God sends somebody to you to point out your sins to you, and you cannot receive it, there is a third option that is available to you. That is judgment, the mercy of God designed to bring you to repentance. If none of these three options work, the only thing that is left for you is to be cast into outer darkness which means that you will lose whatever anointing you have and become a carnal man. It is the only opportunity for Christ to appear in you in this lifetime. Glory to God.
Verse 14, "For the Kingdom of Heaven is a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods." This word "goods" is Strong's #5224. It means, "property or possessions," and it also means, "things extant." We talked about this word in the tape "And Jacob Prevailed." We found out that when Jacob had that encounter with God, and I believe the name of the place was called Bethel, if I am not mistaken, the word "extant" is used. It means that another man stood up in Jacob and stood apart from him. It was the spiritual man. It was the Christ that had been there in his heart all of his life but may not have ever manifested before. All of a sudden, he manifested and stood up and away from Jacob.
There was something within Jacob's being that was not the natural man Jacob, and this thing separated himself from Jacob and spoke to him. I am suggesting to you that the goods that this man delivered unto his servants was the spiritual substance of his spiritual life.
What are we saying? "Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh, because the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man traveling into a far country." That is the Son of God. He came from the realm of the Spirit into the realm of appearance, who called His own, servants. That is us. He picked us, He called us, He elected us, He gathered us together. He formed us and delivered unto us His own very spiritual substance.
I declare to you that we would not even have existence if it were not for the life substance of the Son of God. The earth that we are made of is just clay, brethren.
Men have been trying to make men for centuries. You have all heard of the story of Frankenstein. This Dr. Frankenstein took body parts from corpses and tried to give the animal that he sewed together, life or existence. If you have existence today, brother, it is because the Son of God joined Himself to the earth, losing all spiritual power. He was rich and became poor so that we could be formed with a measure of existence, because we would be just a lump of clay. We would not even be clay, we would be the dust of the earth, the dry dust of the earth, if the Spirit of Almighty God, of His Son, had not been propelled into the earth, making the dust, clay, and giving us existence. Alleluia.
This is a parable that Jesus spoke. He is talking about Himself. He is saying that He was that man and He traveled into this far country of the realm of the living soul that died. He called His servants out of His own substance and delivered unto them, His own Life to the earth. We know that at the very beginning when the soul of man was formed, when Adam was formed, he was not in a fallen condition. He really did receive the Life of God in that hour. We do not have the Life of God now. We have existence, and the Life of God is being restored to us if we are believers.
He is saying, "Watch therefore, be careful, do not think that you do not have to obey the rules of the Bible." Now you might not be committing murder or adultery, or doing anything like that, but do not think that you do not have to worry about unforgiveness and bitterness. In general, do not think that you can say, "I am not going to deal with my sin today, I will deal with it tomorrow," because you know not when the Son of Man is coming to you. When He comes, your opportunity to repent of these things can be cut off and replaced with judgment. Glory to God.
The word is, do not think you have time, because He is going to be appearing in the sky and it is not happening yet. That is not how it is happening, brethren. He is coming into us, one at a time, and we will have plenty of warning to repent of our sins, before He comes.
Somewhere along the line, Jesus Christ will make a judgment that you are not responding to the ministry that He has sent to you, and the only thing that is going to save your life is a rod across your back or judgment, wherein there is no immediate repentance granted. Glory to God.
For the Kingdom of God is not a place. A lot of people out there are saying, "heaven and hell is a place." I cannot find anywhere in the Bible where it is a place, brethren." The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man traveling into a far country, who calls His servants, and gave unto them His very own substance." It is a state of being, brethren. The Kingdom of Heaven, our heaven, is a state of being. We are not our bodies, we are our souls. It is a condition of the soul. Heaven or hell is a condition of the soul.
When Jesus Christ is ruling in your mind, you are in heaven, brethren. When the carnal mind, ruled by the spirit known as Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, is ruling in your mind, you are in hell. If you think that you cannot be in hell, while you are talking in tongues, you are mistaken, because you can be. Jesus Christ must be ruling in your mind. He must be your discernment. He must be your motivation. He must generate the thoughts that enter into your mind. Glory to God.
Verse 15, "And to one of these servants, he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability and straightaway, took his journey." Glory to God. I see that I left something out. I had some definitions on this word "extant." I just want to put it on the tape. It means, "standing out, to be in existence currently or actually existing." It means that when this man gave his servants his goods, he gave them the ability to exist. Verse 15, I just read.
The number five is the number of ministry, and I am going to suggest to you that when He gave one man several talents, well, He gave every man according to his several ability. That means He gave every man according to his individual ability. This clearly states that every human being does not have the same potential in Christ. Do you hear me? Every human being does not have the same potential in Christ. If you are going out beating on doors, and beating people over the head with Bibles, the chances are you are wasting your time. Everybody does not have the potential to be as you are. Neither are they necessarily called in the same hour that you are called.
I have a very deep call on my life. For many years, I would get angry at people that did not want to run along at the incredible speed that I was proceeding at, until the Lord clearly spoke to me and told me that they are not capable of it, and that we must deal with every believer and non-believer in love, just as you would deal with a child. You have to find the level on which they can communicate with you. If you want to relate to a five-year old child, you do not give him a treatise on psychology from your college course. We have to know who we are, and where we are in Christ because other people are not where we are. That is no reason to lock them out of our life.
People are people, brethren. They are human beings, they have feelings, they have needs, and we are to treat every man as yourself. If you are mature in Christ, the obligation, the responsibility is upon you to descend to the level where the person that you are trying to relate to has a fair chance of meeting you. If you are not willing to descend, you are manifesting pride. Paul said, "He made himself all things to all men, that he might, by some hope, save a few."
Do not think I am saying this is easy. I had a real problem with it. I had people that were in the church for years that cannot even listen to my tapes. I had a real problem with it. I do it, brethren, because my God appeared to me, and He said to me, "You better do it." I repented, and He gave me the ability. Sometimes I squirm in my seat, but I do the best I can, and it is much easier than it used to be. Sometimes God sends people to me, and all they can talk about is carnal things. I am not talking about non-believers, I am talking about believers.
There was one woman, she was part of a group that I fellowship with frequently, a really sweet lady, and all she could talk about was her husband, her children and washing clothes. I wanted to talk about the deep things of God and revelation. Every time she would approach me, I would get away from her, and go talk to someone who could at least understand what I was talking about. She was so nice, she never even got mad at me. If someone did that to me, I would have been highly insulted. I had to repent of that.
God gave me another opportunity. I had not seen her in a long time, but I saw her about eight months ago. I was invited to dinner, and I was sitting next to her at the table. I spent the whole evening talking about carnal things with her. I talked about her children, I talked about cooking, and I talked about baking. There was all these intense spiritual conversations going on at the other end of the table. I talked about nonsense because she was sitting next to me, she is a human being, and that was as high up as she could come. It would have been obnoxious of me to ignore her, because my soul wanted the satisfaction of talking about spiritual things.
My soul had to wait until the next day, and it was just tough on me. Selfishness, deeply associated with pride. Deep, deep, selfishness in many of the members of the church, me above all. Even now, many times I do it, and my soul is grieved. I would much rather be speaking to somebody about the things of God, but I pray for the day that God will give me joy speaking about cooking and baking. Simply because I am relating to another human being, there will be pleasure in my heart, because someone is smiling at me, thinking good thoughts towards me, wanting to communicate with me in the only way they know how. I pray some day, I am so delivered from selfishness, that, that blesses me. Glory to God.
We are in Verse 15, "And to one He gave five talents and to another two." I said, "several abilities." Everyone is not equal in the natural, everyone is not equal in physical stature, everyone is not equal in intellectual stature, and everyone is not equal in spiritual stature. Each man received from God according to his several abilities. One man received five talents. A talent is merely a measure of money, five typifying ministry. The two typifies the Father and the Son. I am suggesting to you, the one that received the five talents received an ability to minister.
Everybody is not called to ministry, brethren. You are nothing special if you are called to ministry. It is just what has been given to you. Do not glory in your good looks, do not glory in your wealth, do not glory in your ability to preach or pray deliverance. Glorify God, brethren, resist pride at every turn. The life you could be saving is your own. The ultimate enemy of man, and, in particular, the believer, is pride. "Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." I have never seen that Scripture so real in my life, since this last year or so. Pride must end in destruction if it is not repented of and dealt with.
One man had the ability to minister. Another man received two talents. I am suggesting to you that the two typifies the Father and the Son. I am going to suggest that this man had the ability to conceive Christ, he had the root of Christ. He had what it took in a spiritual being for Christ to be conceived in him.
"And to another He gave one talent." I am suggesting to you, brethren, that the man or men, He gave one talent, He delivered the Word of God. These are carnal men who were not called to ministry, were not called to conceive Christ, but they received the Word of God, the ability to read the Word of God, draw upon it, and lead a life filled with blessings if they would obey. Three different levels of spirituality. Glory to God.
"And to every man according to his several ability and straightaway, He took His journey." He left. Well, what does that mean to those of us here that have been so blessed with deep revelation? I suggest to you that He deposited His life substance into the living soul that died. That was what, in fact, made it the living soul that died. We took form, we have existence, and He took His journey, He disappeared into us. He dissolved into us. He became us. We have a whole message on that, that the Son of God was joined to the earth of the living soul that died, and He was made into a man.
A lot of people preach those Scriptures, and they really do not know what it means. He was fashioned like unto a man. Jesus Christ, the spiritual Son of God, was joined to the earth, and He was made into Adam, of which we are a part. Glory to God.
I just wanted to comment that this word "took" in Verse 15,"And straightway took His journey," it is Strong's #589. It is the only time it is translated "took," and it really means, "traveled." He traveled away to a foreign land. I am suggesting to you that when the process was complete, when the spiritual Son of God was joined to the earth and deposited His life substance into us, so that we could take existence, He traveled into a foreign land. He became us, and the foreign land that He entered into was the land of the living soul that died. Glory to God.
Verse 16," Then he that received the five talents, went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents." The word "traded" means "labor, to work with." He that was given the ability to be in ministry, labored with that ability. Glory to God. He was born with the ability to minister, and he labored with that ability and received fruit, another five talents, the actual manifestation of the ministry in his life.
I will take it a step further, that the man that received the five talents is the highly-anointed believer with the imputed anointing. He never did anything, he never studied, he never tried, but he prays deliverance, he prays healing, and he prophesies. The Holy Ghost is all over him, a highly-anointed person, and it was just given to him without repentance. This man wavered with what he had, and the result of it was that he received the imputed anointing. That ministry, that ability to minister entered into his heart, Christ was conceived, and came forth from righteousness. It developed in his soul in a manner that would be secure, and not lost because of unrepentant sin.
I will just give you an example of myself. I am very blessed, I am very gifted, and from the first day God brought me into the church world, I brought forth a prophesy. That was so unusual that the pastor looked around this church of three hundred, he wanted to see who brought it forth. That was a gift without repentance, brethren. I have been very blessed. The gift that you partake of when I teach you, the gift of studying that was given unto me, was a blessing unto you. You are partaking of my gift of studying. You partake of it, you have entered into my labors.
Do you know that most people cannot study for seven hours and bring forth a message? I was doing this seven or eight years ago. God did not give me the opportunity to preach, but I was anointed to study almost from the beginning. He would send people to me to help them with revelation. I did not start preaching until almost two years ago. This is a definite gift that was given to me, the ability to study, the ability to look up all these words and mix it with the Spirit of God in my mind, to come out with a message for you. I took that which was given to me, which was without repentance, and I labored with it, brethren.
While other people were out partying, I was sitting at that kitchen table with my concordances, flipping pages. My arm hurt for years before God let me preach, so I took what was given to me and I labored with it. The fruit of that labor, you are entering into. Glory to God. Alleluia.
Let me just make another comment on this laboring. I not only spent hours flipping the pages of my concordance, I was home when others went out. I did not spent time on carnal things. I spent hours listening to Scripture tapes and reading books. I alienated my own child. I am not saying that you should alienate your own children unless God calls you. When God calls you, you alienate your children, you alienate your wife, you alienate everybody when God says do it. God is just going to have to heal my daughter of the hurt, because He called me, and I went. Do not think I abandoned her, I did not. It was in her mind. She just thought in her mind that I was spending too much time away from her. I certainly did not abandon her.
I gave up a lot of things that other people did not give up. I was in church five services a week, Sunday morning, Sunday School, Sunday morning service. I went home, I ate, I went to sleep, I got up, and I went back to church at seven o'clock Sunday night. I would never miss a service. I think in five years, I missed three services, when somebody died, and once my daughter was in the hospital. Never missed a service. Brethren, you do not get this without labor.
The church is filled with people that are saying, "I want to preach, and I want to minister." Brethren, I am telling you the truth. If you want it, be prepared to pay the price. You do not enter into this thing without labor. There is a labor for God. It is not works, it is not works of the flesh. It is a labor for God. I spent hours on my face in prayer before the Lord, getting words of knowledge from Him and understanding in the Scriptures. I laid hold of my gift and used it, I hope to its fullest potential, because I still do the same thing.
Verse 17, "And likewise, He that received two," he that had received the root of Christ, that received the ability to conceive Christ, "he also gained the other two." This word "gained" means "to increase." What I am suggesting to you is that the servant that had the potential to conceive Christ, he increased. He, in fact, conceived Christ. Glory to God.
Verse 18, "But he that received one," he that received the Word of God, which really is not a spiritual ministry. It is an external form of ministry, a carnal form of ministry, "went out and dug in the earth and hid his Lord's money." I call to your attention that we are no longer talking about talents here. We are talking about money, the word changes to money. If you look that word up in the Greek, it means "silver," typifying redemption.
What are we saying here? There were carnal men in the earth that had no potential to minister, they had no potential to conceive Christ, but God still blessed them with the opportunity to lay hold of His Word and put it in his heart. This man that was not born with any potential for spiritual ministry made the mistake of a carnal man. He buried that Word under his carnal mind. He dug in the earth, and whatever he got, the Scripture does not say, he did not read the Word of God. He may have been reading it continuously, but he did not let it root in his heart. He did not let it become alive in his heart. He dug it under and covered it over with the earth of his soul or his carnal mind.
Brethren, if you have conceived Christ, and you are not living out of Christ, you are likened to this carnal-minded man. Whether you conceived Him or not, whether you have the Holy Spirit or not, if you are living your life out of your carnal mind, this is the category that you fall into. Alleluia.
Verse 19, "After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh." It is a word that means "appeared." "After a long time, the Lord of those servants appeared, and reckoned with them. "Judgment, after a long time. The life of Christ that was buried in the earth, after it has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, I cannot re-teach this whole thing. If this is the first tape that you are hearing, we have a lot of teaching on this.
The life that was in the earth of carnal men, in that earth Christ appeared, after that life was joined to by the Holy Spirit. When Christ appeared, He reckoned with them. When Christ appears in you, and when Christ appears in me, He is going to convince of sin.
I remind you that the Scripture, which I just quoted to you, does not say "convict" of sin. It says, "convince" of sin. If you look up those words, in your concordance, you will find out that the word, "convict" of sin, means that I could go to you, and I could point your sins out to you, and you will not repent. In that instance, I have gone to you with a conviction of sin, but if I convince you of sin, when I tell you that your sin is present, you will believe me. If you believe me, and you repent, I have convinced you of sin. When the Lord appears in you, after all of these thousands of years, when He stands up extant in you, a man separate than your carnal man, He will reckon with you.
Verse 20, "And so, he that had received five talents, came and brought the other five talents." He had the potential for ministry, and he entered into ministry. "Saying, Lord thou deliverest unto me, five talents, behold, I have gained beside them, five talents more." I have used my potential. You may have heard it said, not only in the church, but in the world, that the greatest tragedy that can happen to a human being is for them to not attain to their potential. I have told my daughter for years, be everything that you can be. What a waste of a body, mind, and spirit to have potential, and because of misguidedness, or laziness, to not develop yourself. That is the greatest tragedy that could come upon a human being. Glory to God.
Verse 21, "And his Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant." That word "faithful" means "believing." "Well done, thou good and believing servant, thou has been believing over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of the Lord." This word "few," "Thou has been believing over a few things," is Strong's #3641. It means, "puny in value."
It means that you have found it within you to believe the really simple things of the Kingdom. You believe that God is. You believe that God is a Spirit. You believe that prophesy is a reality. You believe that tongues are of the Spirit of God. Because you had the faith to believe these simple things, He said, "I will make thee a ruler over many things."
This word "ruler" is Strong's #2525, and it means, "to place down permanently." I suggest to you, what the Lord is saying is, "Because you believe the simple things of My Kingdom, I am going to give you the ability to bring forth Christ, who will permanently press down your carnal mind and will rule your life, which is the ultimate blessing of God."
In the next phase is, "Enter thou into the joy of the Lord." The joy of the Lord is the Spirit of Almighty God. It means "calm," it means "peace." We know the only way we are going to find peace is when that wall is broken down. That is what the Scripture and the Spirit of God says. When we enter into the soul of Jesus Christ, and our carnal mind is buried underfoot, what gives us torment, brethren, is the conflict between Christ and our carnal mind. Therefore, the joy of the Lord is the raising up of Christ and putting down all rule and principality, not outside of you, brethren, in your own mind. "And of the twain, He made one new man, and we shall have peace."
Verse 22, Alleluia, "He also that had received two talents, came and said, Lord thou deliverest unto me two talents, behold, I have gained two other talents, beside them." The man that was born with the ability to conceive Christ also increased. Now there was no labor here. Notice there was labor to have a potential for ministry and to minister. There was labor involved. There was no labor involved in conceiving Christ when you are born with that potential. That is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said to that man also, "Enter into the soul of Jesus Christ. Enter into the joy of the Lord."
Verse 24, "Then he which had received the one talent and said, Lord, I knew thee, that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed." I do not know about you, but I have been reading this for years, and it never occurred to me that this servant was lying to Him, or using some form of mind control on Him. I never stopped to think about it. The servant said to Almighty God, "That I knew thee, that thou art a hard man." We knew that Jesus was speaking about Himself in this Scripture. A hard man. The word means, "rough, stern, dry, due to lack of water," a man without the Spirit of God.
I suggest to you that the slothful servant is accusing the Lord of being what he (the man) is. This is the ultimate mind control. God or a minister of God will come to somebody with a word or just appear, and that person will attribute all of the wickedness in their mind upon the minister of God, it is not upon God directly. If someone is ministering Christ, there is no difference. If God sends a minister to you, and you make a mistake, and you call their spirit an unclean spirit, brethren, this is no simple mistake. You have called the Lord an unclean spirit. That is a very serious error. I suggest to you that this carnal-minded man, did exactly that.
"And then he that had the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man." What do you mean? That is an outright lie that the man of God is a hard man, without the Spirit. That is what he said to Him. "You are without the Spirit, you are a natural man." That is what he said to Him, "Reaping where thou hast not sown." The word "reaping" means "to harvest," and the word "sown" means, "to sow seed." What is he saying to Him?
He is saying, "If you are coming to get what is yours," and when Jesus is coming, what is He going to get? He is coming to get the spiritual life that was buried in the earth, and this man is saying to the Lord, "You reap what you have not sown. Here you are, coming to attain spiritual life from these human beings, but you did not sow it, you are not the Creator of the universe, you are not the substance of which all men are made, and you are not the owner of the human race. I know that you are just a tough, strong man that is coming to get what is not really yours."
Look at this accusation, look at this attribution of sin to the man in whom the Spirit of God is manifesting. Also, he said, "I know you are a man that gathers where you have not strewed." The word "gather" is Strong's #4863. It means to "lead together, to collect, or to convene." The word "strewed" is Strong's #1287. It means, "to scatter, to separate, to winnow." That word "winnow" is the word that is used to describe the separating of the wheat from the chaff.
What is he saying to Him? "You are collecting fruit where you have not sowed the seed, this is not your creation, you are not entitled to anything." He is saying, "You are leading together," and I remind you that all things are going to be gathered into one in Christ. He is drawing the whole creation back into one again, and he is saying, "You are gathering into one, that which you have not separated."
The word "strewed" means, "to scatter." What is he saying? He is denying that the curse of dispersion is from Almighty God. He is saying, "We are not made from your life substance, and you did not have the power to disperse us. We are man." That is what he is saying to Him, lifting himself up in pride against the Lord. Glory to God.
When man suggests that God does not have the power to disperse the human race, what is he saying? What is he subtly saying? He is saying, "God does not rain down judgment. Do not fear God, He will never judge you, God loves you. God has not caused your existence and God does not judge sin." That is what he is saying, and "God does not appear in men. If you come to me in the name of the Lord, you are a hard man without the Spirit of God." He is utterly denying Christ in the flesh.
Verse 25, "And I was afraid." He makes up this fairy story about God, makes Him into a monster, and then he declares, "Because I was afraid of you, I went and hid thy talent in the earth. That is why I buried the potential for your spiritual life, that is why I buried the Word of God under my soul, because you are this ungodly person, because you are hard, because you are cold, because you are without the Spirit, which is mercy and life, and truth. Because you are saying, that we belong to you, and we really do not, and you are saying that you judge people, and that you judge sin, and we do not believe that. I heard the story, and I was afraid of you, therefore I did not make any use of the Word of God that you gave me. I did not believe it." That is what he is saying.
He says that he is afraid, but what he really means, and I did not look that word up, I should have looked it up, what it really means is, "I did not believe you. I did not believe that you are our Life, I did not believe that you rain down judgment, I do not believe that you appear in a man, I do not believe that. Therefore, whatever opportunity you gave me to manifest Christ, I buried under the soul of my carnal mind."
Verse 25, "And I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth and lo, there thou hast what is thine." I know we are talking about the Word of God here, but I declare to you, brethren, the Word of the Lord in my heart tonight is that this parable can be applied to any opportunity that God gives you, any opportunity that He brings you to. If this is your reaction, number one, it is the reaction of a carnal mind. If you deny the Christ, if you deny the truth that God is our first source, and if you deny that God rains down judgment, your carnal mind is manifesting. If this is your reaction to a spiritual opportunity, you have rejected what God has given you. Glory to God. God does not want back what He gave you. He wants increase.
Verse 26, Glory to God. "And the Lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful servant. Thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed." Does that not contradict what I just said? No, brethren, because if you look it up in the original Greek, you will see that, that is Jesus mocking him, and saying to him, "You wicked and slothful servant, if you really believe that I reap where I sow not, if you really believe that this is not My creation, if you really believe that I am not the source of your existence, and if you really believe that I have gathered where I have strewed not, if you really believe that I do not have the strength to disperse the human race, if you really believe that I do not rain down judgment."
I am going to talk about that a little more before I go on. He is going to say, "Why did you not do such and such, if you really believed it?" Jesus is calling him a liar. Jesus is saying, "Do not tell me that you are afraid, and do not tell me that you have an excuse to have not believed, because the reason that you have not believed is that you are a wicked and slothful servant." The word "wicked" is Strong's #4l90, and it means, "hurtful in effect or influence, diseased, calamitous, or ill." Where? In your soul. What is your soul. It is your mind.
If God sends you ministry, whether it be the simple Word of God in a book form, or if He sends you the Word of God in a living person, and your reaction to that opportunity to receive ministry from God is that, "I do not believe that the Spirit of God is in you, you are hard, you are dry, and you are without the Spirit of God. I do not believe that God is your source, and I do not believe that judgment can fall upon me as result of my not receiving your Word." If that is your reaction to the ministry sent to you, the Lord says, "Your mind is diseased and ill."
I did not say it, Jesus said it. "Hurtful in effect or influence." He says, "If that is your reaction, your soul is hurtful, it hurts others, it is criminal. You are a wicked servant and you are also slothful," Strong's #3636.
Although this word can be translated "annoying, grievous, or lazy," it also can be translated, "late." I suggest to you that, "You are wicked, and your mind is diseased," is that it is not responding in the way it should be responding, and that you are late in receiving the ministry that Almighty God has for you. You are missing this thing. You are missing it. Glory to God.
The fact that you are reacting this way is grievous to God and annoying. It causes distress in the heart of the minister that has been sent to you. It causes harm, it causes hurt, it causes pain, it causes destruction. Why? Because the reality is that you have set up your carnal mind against the mind of God in this minister, and you are waging war against him. If you think you are not damaging them, you are mistaken. You are hurting them. The one that has been sent to die for you, you are putting nails in him.
Verse 26, "His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou newest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed: Verse 27, Thou oughtest therefore to have taken my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Let me tell you this one more time. If you knew that it was not my life that gave existence to the human race, if you knew that I had no power to rain down judgment," let us find out what He is saying here.
Verse 27, The word "exchangers" does mean, "money exchangers," but it is from a root that means, "a table for food," because in the Bible days, the money exchangers used to sit in the temple on the floor, with a four legged table with all the money on it. That was how they transacted business. The exchange took place on a table, and this word, from a root #5132, means "a table for food." The Hebrew is derived from the fact that it is four legged. It is four legged, and I declare to you, the intent here is animal life, and Jesus is saying to him, "If this is true about me, why did you not take that nugget, whatever it is, whether it be the Word of God in a book, or the Word of God that was delivered to you by the Spirit of another human being, if you really believed that this was not for you, why did you not throw it into the animals?"
Remember that story about the pigs? Let me read this for you again, I know this is tough.
"Thou oughtest, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers." That word "put," is Strong's #906, and it means, "to cast out." It is the word that is used a multitude of times in the New Testament to describe the casting out of evil spirits. "And they drove out evil spirits, and they expelled evil spirits," this is the word #906. He said, "If you really believe that about me, why did you not cast out that word, and send it to the four legged animals? And if that were the case, at My coming, if it was given to animals, if My Word was given to the animals, when I appeared to the animals, I would have received it with usury," which means, "a form of increase."
"If you were such a hard hearted, wicked servant that you would deny the Word that I have sent to you, why did you not cast it out, and give it to the animals. The animals would have given me an increase." Jesus said, "If you do not praise me, I will raise up these stones to praise Me. Why did you do nothing with it? Why did you just hold on to it? Why? Because your mind is diseased. Did you walk away from the ministry? Did you leave the church? Did you go? No, you stayed there, you just did not receive the Word. Why? Because your mind is diseased, and because you are late in what God has for you. Why did you not just cast the whole thing out, if you really believe that, that this is not the Word of God, and that judgment could not fall, and that there is no power in this place? Why did you hold on to it, and just bury it under the earth of your carnal mind? Because you have pride, and because your mind is diseased, and because you are late in getting what God has for you." Glory to God.
Verse 28, "Therefore, take the Talent from him and give it unto him which has ten talents. Therefore, take that measure, take that Word, take that opportunity in Christ, and give it to the man, that has labored to develop that which God has given him potential for."
Verse 29, "For unto everyone that hath, shall be given and he shall have abundance." This word abundance is #4025, and it means, "a putting all around, decorating oneself, wearing." I suggest to you it is the imparted anointing. If you study that through, it is really the imparted anointing. The decoration of oneself and being covered all around, that is what He is saying. "Everyone that hath," to everyone that hath what? "To everyone that hath," what God has given them, and done properly with it, he shall receive the imparted anointing.
"But from him that hath not, shall be taken away, even that which he has." If you have nothing, how can it be taken away from you? I suggest to you that with the mind of God, if you have opportunity in Christ, and you bury that opportunity under your carnal mind, in the mind of God you have nothing. "He that hath not, it shall be taken away from him, even that which he is not using." That is what we are saying, but for him that has something and he is not using it, you are going to lose it.
Verse 30, "And cast you, the unprofitable servant, into outer darkness." That word "unprofitable" means, "unused," brethren. If God has given you a measure of His Spirit, if He has called you to a place in Christ, if He has given you an opportunity and you have not partaken of that opportunity, the ultimate judgment upon you is to be cast out into outer darkness. I suggest to you that means the loss of any anointing that you have. "And there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
"Gnashing of teeth," if you study it out, it is referring to the effect of affliction by demon power. When you are afflicted by demon power, brethren, you grind your teeth.
If you remember, I think it was the young epileptic that Jesus ministered to. The father said, "That spirit, it throws him into the fire and he gnashes his teeth." When you are cast into outer darkness there will be much tears, which is the result of judgment and there will be gnashing of teeth. Demon power will be given authority over you because you did not use what God gave you. Glory to God. It is the Word of God.
I am telling you the truth, hear and live. If you are mad at me, you need deliverance. God said this, not me. Hear the Word of the Lord and live. I want you to live. I want nothing for anybody other than Life, blessings, peace, truth, and the glory of God. Live. Any questions on this message tonight. Glory to God.
I just need one more comment on that verse about the "exchangers." I know that was a little tough, that Jesus said, "If you really believe that, you should have given my money to the exchangers." I remind you that this is a parable, and Jesus clearly stated that the messages in the parable are hidden messages. We have to look deep into them for spiritual truth. Glory to God. God bless you. I wish only the best for you all.
Somebody just asked a question again about what the exchangers meant. As I was explaining it, the Lord brought to my mind that all the exchangers means, "four legged." What the Lord was saying to the servant, "If you really believe this about me, that my servant has not My Spirit, that I am not responsible for your existence, and that there is no power of judgment available here, if you really believe that, why did you not take what you had and throw it to the animal life? Why did you hold on to it? Why did you just bury it under the soul of your carnal mind?"
The reason that they did not throw it to the animal life was that the person in this condition wants to believe that they have the Spirit of God. They do not want to give whatever is in them of God and throw it to the swine. They want to believe that they are moving in Christ, but the reality is that they have tread that which was Christ underfoot, and made it of no effect.
Pride is very involved in this kind of manifestation. My personal opinion is that anyone that is manifesting this kind of manifestation is severely bound by pride. The greatest enemy of all mankind and, in particular, the believer, will destroy you. God hates it. I have said this on other tapes. You hear a lot about sexual sin in the church world. I am not saying, sexual sin is alright, but it is not the worse crime. The worse crime is pride. Why? Because it separates you from God.
I know people who fornicate, I know people who were drug addicts, and they walk around and they say, "I cannot stop doing it, God help me." When you see you are manifesting pride, you cannot even say, "God help me." You will not even be able to confess your sin, if you are manifesting pride. It is the most wicked, destructive, spiritual force in man. Any other questions?
When the unfaithful, wicked servant said he was afraid, I told you that I did not look that word up in the Greek, but that it probably meant, "if you really believed it." I did say that, I am standing by it, but there is another aspect to that understanding, and that is that the greatest fear that anyone can experience comes from pride. Anyone that is bound severely by pride, when they fail to control their circumstances, will be afflicted by severe fear. Your fear is because you are failing to control your circumstances.
I went through this eight months ago with somebody. They were crying on my shoulder, "I am afraid, I am afraid to go out at night, I am afraid to drive, and I am afraid to do this." I told them, "Your fear is your failure to control your circumstances." They did not believe me, and they wound up leaving the church. You can believe me or not, but I am telling you the truth that most fear, not all fear, but most fear results from pride. If you know that you have a problem with pride and manifesting fear, it is very important that you should know that this fear is manifesting because you are failing to control your circumstances. You are afraid of being subject to somebody else. It is very important that you know that. Fear will utterly destroy you.
You can have fear because you had a bad experience. That is very possible, but even if your fear, if you take it all the way back, and you had a bad experience in life, bad experiences leave us with a desire to control our circumstances. All control is pride. Why is it pride? Because if we think we can control our circumstances, we can protect ourselves, and there is no protection outside of Almighty God. It is pride, it is our own soul laying hold of our circumstances and our life and trying to rule and utterly shutting God out.
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